To lose the Dubai Desert Classic by one to Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello was bad enough, but to throw away an overnight lead felt worse. From a world No 3, and a player still troubled by the perennial weakness of his short game, it was hardly a convincing statement.

Westwood has worked tirelessly for the past year on refining his touch around the greens, but his lapse yesterday reawakened some dormant demons.

The moment he pulled his approach to the Emirates Club’s water-guarded final green, knowing he would require the dreaded lob wedge to escape the first cut of rough, the nerves were evident.

He caught his chip thin, and missed the ensuing 20-foot putt that could have sealed his place in a play-off. The old malaise was back.

As Cabrera-Bello, the unheralded champion from the Canary Islands, walked up to receive the giant genie lamp of a trophy, Westwood sat slouched and sullen throughout the presentation ceremony.

Backstage, manager Chubby Chandler and caddie Billy Foster conducted a post-mortem on what had gone wrong. The man himself was not prepared to illuminate, making his exit from the Majlis course without a word.

It proved a chastening moment for Westwood, who finished at 17-under par and had talked so positively before this final round of his ability to defend a lead. The portents appeared promising when, at the par-four second yesterday, he sank a 40-footer for eagle to move two clear of Germany’s Marcel Siem.

But from there he began to labour in the breezier conditions, dropping a stroke at the fifth and struggling to contain the surging Cabrera-Bello, who returned an unblemished card of 68. His playing partner, Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, put it pithily: “He played well — he just never holed anything.”

He show signs of agitation, too, not least when snapping at a spectator for using a flash camera on the 16th fairway. Backing off shots at each of the next two holes, he projected the type of unsettled air reflected in his decisive error with the wedge.

The worry for Westwood, who turns 39 in April, is if he transfers this querulous mood to the major championship arena. He has already let chances slip to win three majors — at the US Open in 2008, Turnberry a year later, and the 2010 Masters — and can ill afford a repeat near-miss at Augusta this year.

Westwood can enjoy one minor consolation this morning, when he learns that he has recaptured the world No 2 ranking from Rory McIlroy by a mere 0.004 points. As a former holder of the No 1 spot, though, he identifies a first major as his overriding priority. All his winter drills with putting coach Phil Kenyon have been undertaken with precisely that aim in mind.

As such, it is difficult to depict his latest wobble in the crucible of pressure as anything other than a backwards step. Granted, he has won 37 times worldwide, but his prodigious ball-striking from tee to green has sometimes masked his deficiencies in the game’s more delicate arts.

Cabrera-Bello, by contrast, was relishing the exposure. The 27 year-old had underlined his talent by winning the 2009 Austrian Open with a closing round of 60, and he delivered a similarly nerveless final act here, sinking a critical nine-foot birdie putt at the 17th. He also became the third Spanish winner of this event in succession, joining compatriots Migual Ángel Jiménez and Álvaro Quirós.

“It’s a really amazing feeling to be part of that same history,” he said.

For McIlroy, who had led after 36 holes before his wayward driving in the wind let him down, it was a time to be reflective. He reached 14 under, securing his seventh top-10 finish in his last eight European Tour starts, but knew he ought to have contended more strongly for the title.

“I’m a little disappointed, considering the position I’m in,” said the Ulsterman, who departed Dubai with the same alacrity as Westwood, as he prepared to join tennis star girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki at her next event in Qatar.